Agrimarket commits to increase the amount of the phosphorus and nitrogen removed from fields in crop yields – equivalent to HELCOM’s emission reduction targets for Finland

News / 15.05.2014

Agrimarket, the largest chain for agriculture-related machinery, hardware and gardening trade as well as a significant buyer of crop in Finland, has made a Baltic Sea Commitment for five years.

The goal of the Commitment is to take out more nutrients than currently as crop yields: two million kilograms of nitrogen and half a million kilograms of phosphorus. The emission reduction targets of HELCOM (Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) are at the same level.

Agrimarket commits to offer its contract farmers an IT-tool and help for calculating the nutrient balance of their fields. Based on the nutrient balance calculations the farmers can estimate the nutrient losses and plan new measures to optimize the nutrient usage and thus prevent leakages to the Baltic Sea. When needed, Agrimarket also aims to help its contract farmers in the planning of the measures required.

“When the actions are planned especially for each field, good crop yields can be achieved. This means also less nutrient leakages to the Baltic Sea” says Head of Research Juha Salopelto from Agrimarket.

“Calculating the nutrient balance is a useful tool to gain the good crop yield and environmental friendliness concurrently”, Salopelto continues.

“Agrimarket’s Commitment for the Baltic Sea makes the deployment of the nutrient balance calculations easier and helps farmers to strive for a good nutrient balance on their fields”, says Mathias Bergman, the Secretary General of BSAG.